We woke up to a very cold tent. There is a dual space heater/air con unit but it's very loud so we didn't use it during the night. Fortunately it quickly warms up the tent. The outdoor shower was "refreshing" if not reminicent of my days in South America about 15 years ago. Though the one here has hot water.
The outdoor shower.
After a nice breakfast in the lodge, we went to the Cango Wildlife Park where they tout the "Big Five" of Africa: lion, buffalo, leopard, elephant, and rhino. Our lovely tour guide took us to an area where she briefed us about the adventure upon which we were about to embark. We were standing in an enclosed area and she told us some story about gods and weird stuff and we should not anger the gods. Suddenly the speakers overhead did some sort of Big God noise and a light or two blinked to signal the gods could really get mad. The three of us looked at each other like "we paid for this"? So I started singing It's a Small World After All which one of us will do when we find something sort of mickey mouse-ish.
The entrance to the "wildlife park".
The place turned out to be more of a zoo than a wildlife park. At the croc pond, a rope and wood bridge spanned the water just on the other side of a barrier so if you fell in the water, you'd be safe. So the guide told the children they needed to go on the bridge for a fun treat. As soon as they started walking across, she flipped a switch and the bridge started shaking, making more noise than actual shaking. Johann and I laughed at the cheese factor and looked around for Forbes. He was almost pushing kids into the water so he could have his turn on the bridge. The man-boy smile on his face was precious.
The lions and tigers were enclosed in their pens and sleeping. We were able to view them from above as they slept. I felt bad for them having to be caged up. The rhinos and hippos were in smaller cages as well and fairly dreary. There was a snake area which allowed me to see the native snakes of the area. I didn't realize it but there is a cobra species native to South Africa.
A cheetah.
A white lion.
We left our zoo experience and went into the town of Oudtshoorn to see the small city. Everything is a bit run down and looks like it could have a good scrub. We walked up and down the main street and stopped into some shops. We split at some point and did our own thing until we planned to meet for lunch at 1pm. The main street area is quite bustling, especially since it is Saturday. As I was making my way to the pub to meet the other two, I noticed a shop closing. Then another. By the time I got to the pub, it was like a ghost town on main street. Where there were no parking spaces before, there were no cars. Where you would have to weave and dodge through the crowd before, you were hard pressed to find anyone. The shops close from 1 to 2 pm every day for much. It was bizarre.
After finally having a decent salad for lunch, we drove back to Buffelsdrift to prepare for our safari. We were picked up in a range rover safari vehicle that you board by an 8ft raised walkway. There are binoculars in the seats and blankets in case it gets too cold. The vehicle holds 9 passengers and all seats were full. Hendrik was our handsome guide for the afternoon and turned out to be a wonderful game spotter. He would scan the horizon with just his eyes and stop the vehicle to confirm what he saw with binoculars. He spotted a mountain zebra among a tree grove that nobody else could find until he pointed out the location.
The range rover we traveled in.
At first we didn't see much else besides springboek for the first while. We drove along a road and then proceeded up a hill to get a better viewpoint. From there we saw two rhinos walking down the road right where we had been so we went back down the hill back to the road and found them. We were able to follow them for about a mile before their tolerance of our presence wore off and they ran into the bush.
The rhinos as their tolerance of us was waning.
Next we turned down another road and came across a giraffe family: three adults and one baby. Hendrik told us the giraffes are used to seeing the vehicles so they just kept eating about 50 yards away as we drove by. Along the way we saw more springboek, onyx, kudu, and meerkats (so cute!). Johann's mother told us they had a meerkat as a pet when Johann was younger even though it's not legal.
On our way back to the compound, we were stopped by the two male giraffes "necking" which is when they swing their enormous necks in a wide circle in order to hit the other one and knock him down. They didn't see us for quite a while so we were able to watch them fight for several minutes. When they figured out we were there, they startled and ran a little ways down the road where they started up again. So we drove a little further and they stopped and ran up the road. It seemed they were more interested in necking than moving. Eventually they moved their playtime up the hill a little ways so we could pass them and get back to the lodge. We unloaded and headed to our tents. We were all pretty cold once the sun went down and we had the wind blowing on us.
The necking giraffes.
We freshened and headed back to the lodge to have a drink before dinner. The rugby game was on TV and the small crowd became quite rowdy. We eventually tired of the crowd and headed for the dining area downstairs. This time Johann had the ostrich he had been longing for since tasting Forbes' the previous night and Forbes had the venison. I stuck with the beef fillet. I had a piece of each of theirs but wouldn't order my own. It's more the thought that gets me because it tastes fine.
Dessert was a scope of ice cream for me and two sticky toffee puddings for the others. I think Forbes has been kissing something he shouldn't have because he's got a cold sore. At some remark from me, he plunged his spoon into my ice cream after I'd had one spoonful so I dumped the remainer of my ice cream onto his plate. You'd never know by watching us that we are all at least 35 years old (that would be me, the youngest).
